Lori & Clyde
by The 21st Century Pendragon
Summary: With Bobby dropping out of their date, Lori has no other choice but to bring the last person she could ask of, to her dinner date. No hint of romance here.
1. Part 1

**Hey guys! Just a quick update, I'll be having a one week hiatus, so expect new stories this upcoming Sunday, January 15. I have some stuff to handle personally. And I am going through rest from writing, in reverence to my spiritual life. But stay tuned for the finale to "Real Boys", followups to "The Other House", "The Infant Years" and "Eleventh Heaven".**

 **In the meantime, enjoy this one-shot (if not two-shot, depending on request for a continuation), which has a hint of another story I'm planning. Hope you enjoy the rest!**

* * *

It is a lovely sundown in Royal Woods, Michigan. And Lori barges from the front door, excited of her upcoming date with bobby. She keeps squealing in delight as she prances to her room. Glad no one sees her as she flamboyantly frisks like a little ballerina. Just a further picture of how crazy she gets when it comes to her precious love life.

Tonight, the two plan for another dinner in Jean Juan's French-Mex Restaurant, as the aforementioned restaurant is holding on all-you-can-eat buffet that includes a new menu item, a s'mores chocolate ice cream cake, for only $9.99. Only guests with a special coupon pass can gain access to the buffet. And lucky for Lori she was able to gain two passes as a special incentive from her science project that she claimed she singlehandedly executed. (Lisa did half of the work.)

"Tonight's the night! Just literally the two of us, again. Aahhhh…" Lori utters as she mesmerizes about tonight's date, "My surprise to you, Boo-boo Bear. Where we get to taste my dream cake. Litterally this night couldn't get better without you." She ends this with kissing a photo of Bobby, getting her outfit for the night and dialing him through her phone.

She is not expecting an immediate answer at what she gets from dialing him. But unexpectedly, Bobby answers, much to Loir's joy.

"Bobby Boo-boo Bear, you there?" Lori utters.

"Lori, is that you?" Bobby answers back.

Hearing his voice just makes Lori squeal like a fangirl. "Bobby! Sorry, I'm just literally excited for our date tonight."

"Oh yeah, our date. About that…I think we have to cancel our date night," he despondently admits.

"What?! Bobby?! How? Wha…?"

"Sorry babe. The clearance sale in the mall got crazy. So, I have no other choice," Bobby, who is this time a department store clerk at the mall, says this while fending off angry customers in line to check out their items. This is just an unlucky period for the jack-of-all-trades to get hired at the mall.

Even one furious customer, a loud soccer mom, shouts at him, "You moron got time to chat on your phone while we have to suffer like zombies?!" She says this while pushing Bobby's face and body. This prompts Bobby to end the call. "Sorry babe. Gotta go. Angry customers approaching. Wahh!" he utters as he gets buried from the stampede of customers who rush past him.

"Bobby?! Hello?" Lori answers back, to realize that bobby hung up, "No!" Learning about Bobby canceling a romantic date is instant bad news for Lori that he refuses to accept it.

Just after that, the eldest Loud sister wails so loud and overly dramatic that it catches the attention of her mom Rita, who, while cooking dinner, encountered her daughter crying by the dinner table while wallowing with a tub of rocky road ice cream. Mrs. Loud is aware of her daughter's night out with her boyfriend. So she wonders why her daughter is out of touch, "Lori, sweetie, why aren't you preparing your date with Bobby?"

"No date. No date," Lori answers while crying.

"Ohh Lori, it's okay. There's a next time for you and Bobby," Mrs. Loud tries to comfort her.

But Lori rebukes, "Next…time? But Bobby promised me that he'll go…and then he cancelled…but I worked hard…mahh hard…mahh work…" She tries to explain the whole story but only mutters mumbles. Still, Mrs. Rita understands her daughter's feelings.

"It's okay, sweetie," Mrs. Loud sympathizes with patting her shoulder, "You'll always have dates with Bobby. There's a next time for everything."

But Lori keeps wailing dramatically, as shown by her eyeliner dripping horrifyingly on her face. "Well, time to go alone. Me, myself and I, and Mr. Chocolate Ice Cream Cake."

"Wait, just you?" Mrs. Loud asks, "You're not gonna bring someone with you?"

"Why would I…?"

"Aww sweetie, I know it's hard. For now, take a break. Why don't you treat one of your siblings? I'm sure you don't want to waste one hard-earned ticket."

"How about I give this to you?"

"Aww I want to, but I have to conduct a dental surgery tonight. Actually have to leave now once dinner stew is ready."

Upon hearing that, Lori gets dismayed evenly. But Mrs. Loud, as always bring a reliable mother, assures her, "I understand what you're going through, Lori. But you have to realize that not everything goes in our own way. But we don't just go with the flow. We make the best out of it. I promise, tonight will get better for you."

With that, Lori takes time to ponder of her hopelessness, even though her situation does not warrant her to be hopeless. Eventually, she smiles to her mother. "I guess so," she utters.

"That's my girl," Mrs. Loud responds, "Now off you go. You might get behind in line. Ask one of your siblings if they can. And tell the rest that dinner's ready. Oh, and have someone responsible to be in charge. Please Lori?"

When Lori nods in compliance, Mrs. Rita bids her daughter goodbye with a kiss on Lori's head and leaves the house. As for the latter, she is still downhearted of her precious date plans being utterly ruined. Still, she reluctantly drags her body to ask her siblings out.

* * *

The first of which is her roommate/closest friend in the Loud house, Leni. With that, she enters their room and straightly asks her, "So Leni, it's been literally awhile since we last hangout. I think it was last Christmas eve, when we went last-minute shopping. Anyway, I just want to ask if you would like to…?"

However, before Lori asks her, she spots Leni making a suit for Lana.

"Now I need five yards of yellow, green and orange fabric to work this out," Leni comments.

Lana then notices Lori's presence, "Oh hi Lori, how do you like my new dragon jumpsuit?"

"Just in time sis," Leni reacts as well, "Wanna help us?"

"What are you literally doing?" Lori asks.

"Oh, I'm making Lana's own dragon jumpsuit," Leni answers with a beam on her face.

"I'm gonna be a dragon for the Chinese festival in school," Lana emphasizes with doing dragon-like gestures and sounds.

"You mean literally part of a dragon?" Lori corrects her tomboyish sister.

"Nope. A real dragon," Lana corrects Lori, while growling chokingly.

"Whatever. So that means you're busy right now, because I was gonna treat one of you guys for…"

Suddenly, before Lori can finish, Lana raises a concern to Leni, "Hey Leni, why there's a tag on my front collar?"

"Oh, that supposed to be the tag where you see the shirt size and the label for the shirt," Leni answers.

"Then why is it in the front?" Lana queries.

Leni then realizes that she might have mistaken the back part of the shirt to be the front part of the shirt, thus making her do the frontal designs to the back part. "Ohh. Hehe. Oops, must have switched the front and the back," Leni admits with a shrug on her shoulder.

"Leni!" Lana reacts, "Does this mean I have to wait for another hours standing?"

"Sorry Lana. But don't worry. We can fix the design," Leni assures, "Just stand still again."

"You know my legs need rest you know?" Lana says.

At that move, Lori think this is not the adequate time to ask one of them to dine with her. "So, I guess that's literally a 'no' then?" she assumes, then exits the room without them noticing.

* * *

Next to her list is her supportive brother Lincoln. She is kind of optimistic with asking him, since he helped her in previous occasions. So, it says a lot that when she approaches his room, Lori sees Lincoln discussing with Luan and Lynn while looking through a blueprint that was placed on his desk.

"And so we just have to clog the toilets?" Lincoln asks.

"Bathrooms in the girl's locker room are the most notorious ones. I am sure someone would cry when the toilet overflows," Lynn explains.

Abruptly, Lori butts in, "What are you guys literally talking about?"

Hearing Lori's voice prompts Lincoln, Lynn and Luan to hide their stuff in a fast motion and to utter in unison, "Nothing."

Lincoln then defends hesitatingly, "We are just planning a secret project that is so secret that we cannot allow anyone to see or know about it."

"Well, sorry for that, if that's the case," Lori responds, "I was just gonna ask if anyone is interested…"

But her three siblings refuse her offer, "No Lori. It's fine. We're good. Now if you could just give us some privacy." They then push the door shut against Lori to push her out and lock it.

"Well, I'm just asking," Lori utters, "I was literally gonna ask you Lincoln for the buffet of your dreams. Guess you don't want it."

After that, Lincoln, Luan and Lynn rest by the back of the door in relief.

"That was close," Lincoln comments, "She almost compromised our plans."

"Yeah, we better be stealthy next time," Lynn adds.

"Yeah, we sure don't want to Lori ourselves to danger. Hehehe. Get it?" Luan agrees, but throws in a joke, much to Lincoln and Lynn's annoyance, "Okay, let's go back to pranking business."

* * *

With Leni and Lincoln crossed out, Lori decides to approach Luna since she infrequently bonds with her. But as she enters her room through her open door, Lori sees Luna comforting a presumably sulkier Lucy.

"Uhmm Luna, what's going on?" the eldest Loud sister wonders.

Luna alarmingly notices her older sister and tries to keep her away from her room. "Lori, I don't this is a perfect time to burst in," she insists, "Lucy's got her moment. Just between the two of us."

"Oh, so this is how you guys are literally doing in the Loud house? Keeping secrets from me?" Lori complains.

"It's not me. It's about Lucy," Luna reiterates, "So if there's something important you need to tell me, tell me later." The rocker sister then shuts the door from Lori and returns to Lucy.

"Is she gone?" Lucy asks.

"Yeah, definitely," Luna answers, "Okay dude, now let's return to the eyes."

It turns out that Luna is putting David Bowie-like makeup to Lucy's face for Luna's planned lip-syncing vlog, presumable a tribute for a known music icon. As for trying to hide from everyone else, Lucy demands this as she does not want to reveal wearing over-the-top makeup in front of her siblings.

"Shall we style the hair?" Lucy asks.

"If you want, we'll place color strands," Luna suggests.

"Make me cool Luna," Lucy demands. And after long moments of makeover, Luna and Lucy film their video.

* * *

The last option Lori has in the Loud house is Lily, since she is the easiest to handle (because she is obviously a baby). However, as Lori enters her room, she spots a little monstrous creature with a diaper munching on Lisa's books. Of course, she gets frightened by its presence that she screams aloud.

Hearing her, the creature lunges to Lori. But in the nick of time, Lola catches the creature with a net and tries to drag it to a cage. Thanks to knowledge from movie marathons, the 6-year-old is able to conceal the creature and silence it.

"That's for you, you monster!" Lola bellows.

"What's going on here, Lola?" Lori asks with a glare on her eyes.

"Uhmmm…not much, if you don't count accidentally pouring chemicals to Lily and turning her into a fuzzy-wuzzy creature, much," Lola says then shrugs.

"Wait, what did you said?"

"Uhmm…we accidentally turned Lily into a wolf monster?" Lola tries to hide off her guilt with a broken smile.

"Lola?! Haven't I told Lisa not to use anyone of us as test subjects for experiments?

"You better ask her that." Lola then points to Lisa's whereabouts – hiding in her cabinet.

Lori checks her out to see the 4-year-old rocking her body back and forth, clearly frightened from the proceedings.

"Are you okay there, Lisa?" Lori asks.

"Must. Never. Turn. Monster," Lisa trembles with her eyes wide open.

"Calm down, Lise. I trapped her in the cage," Lola assures.

"Good. Good," Lisa chatters her words, "Next I'll trap you in the cage."

"Touché," Lola reacts as they prepare the equipment to transform Lily back to her original form. Clearly, this gives the boost to be busy all night, providing a roadblock for Lori, since she already has no one to ask.

* * *

Later that time, Lori continues to mope in the living room. With her head buried on a pillow, she tries to shake off her dismay, to no avail.

"Why can't I let this evening go my away? Even for once?!" Lori languishes like a soaked-up drama queen, "Could this get any worse?"

As she says that, a knock comes from the door. However, she does not answer it. Another knock comes. And again, Lori does not answer it, feeling the unwillingness to not caring about anything. But then, the doorbell keeps ringing and ringing. To her annoyance, Lori marches to the door to answer it, "What is it?!" It is then revealed that the knocker was none other than Lincoln's wingman Clyde. "Oh, it's you."

Obviously, Clyde gets nervous or spaced out when Lori is near him. But currently, he is trying to retrain himself from doing such a thing, which he does here. "Lori…uhmm…is Linc around?" he asks.

"Uhmm no. He's literally working some project with Lynn and Luan," Lori answers, "What are you two gonna do? Hangout?"

"Well no, but yeah. More like that," Clyde answers, "Can I see him now? I have something to show him."

"That could be arranged if they hadn't said 'give us some privacy' or somewhat."

"Oh. What a bummer. Well, if he ever gets done, tell him I'm just on my house, doing nothing but reading the same old comics. Great pastime. Hehe." He then walks back home, kind of sulking. Lori can see from his expressions that Clyde intended a quality time with Lincoln. But it has to go cancelled, due to the latter being busy with his sisters.

Feeling pity for him and relating to his situation, Lori calls back Clyde, "Wait Clyde, why…why…don't you come to dinner with me?"

"Uhmm dinner?" Clyde asks back.

"Yeah. I was supposed to have my date with Bobby tonight but he had to drop out because of his shift at the mall. So, I asked the others, but they're all busy. And that literally leaves you and dad. And I just thought, since you came unexpectedly, that if you're not busy…"

"I'll take it!" Clyde instantly accepts Lori's invitation.

"Are you sure?"

"I gladly accept your invitation, my sweet."

"Okay, first, can you tone down being a romantic?"

"Oh right. Sorry."

"Just wait here. I'll change to my outfit." With that, Lori goes back to the house to prepare for the night.

Clyde cannot wait to actually have a quality time with the girl of his dreams. He only thought that it can happen to his imagination. But it just seems surreal for him that it comes to reality. But there he is, anticipating the moment he gets to see Lori dressed up for their dinner.

After minutes of waiting, Lori comes out of the front door, dressed in a knee-high cocktail party dress, a black blazer and a pearl necklace. "I'm here," she utters to Clyde.

"Whatever you say, my…" Clyde responds as he takes a glance at Lori with awe, "You look…great."

"Hmmm. I'm literally aware you would compliment me like that," Lori says, "Shall we?" She then offers Clyde her hand, to which he gladly accepts. "Promise me tonight Clyde. It's just us being friends."

"Well, couldn't argue you with that," Clyde agrees, even though he would seem be dismayed that this does not hit his expectations. Still, he is glad that he gets to bond with Lori, with just him and Lori. He then points to the readers, "Take this, Bobby!"

It would be a really crazy night for the two, once they arrive at Jean Juan's French-Mex Restaurant.


	2. Part 2

It is a perfect night for Clyde. After years of daydreaming, wishing, hoping, yearning and all the –ings that correlate to hope, Clyde is finally accompanying Lori for a night out in the city. With soothing jazz music playing in the wan, his anticipation grows while he is seated beside Lori as they are driving towards Jean Juan's French Mex Restaurant.

They park the van at nearby building complex and stroll to the restaurant. Unfortunately, since the $10 all-you-can-eat buffet had been a circulating topic across the city, they stumble upon a long queue that extends for six blocks from the restaurant.

Thanks to this, Lori becomes upset at what they arrived to. "I can't believe it! One night. Just on romantic night to taste the best food in the city. Ruined!"

"Relax Lori, we'll still able to get a taste of the buffet," Clyde assures to his 'date'.

"We? Who's we?" Lori berates. "Clyde, we are just two people who are related to one person, and that's it."

"Well, how can we refer ourselves in a pronoun?" Clyde wonders.

"Just, not now." Lori then takes deeper breaths to calm herself from her previous rage. And as she cools down, she worries at their prospect of acquiring a table in Jean Juan's.

Not wanting the entirety of the night to get worse, Clyde decides to break the ice. "You know, Dr. Lopez always shares stories about his patients and their worst moments of their lives. Commonly, it is a result of extreme reactions to situations that gone wrong, and people would react negatively. And thanks to that, things didn't really work that way. That's why he always advises to seize every moment like tomorrow won't last."

But Lori groans over his words.

Minutes go by, and the two are still waiting on line. Lori's stomach suddenly grumbles, making her totally embarrassed. She looks to her purse for possible distractions for her hunger (or maybe food), but she sees nothing but her makeup pouch (with the zipper opened), some leftover receipts and her phone inside. The more and more she resists the growling, the clearer that Lori realizes she is hungry.

Clyde notices this. "Are you okay Lori? You seemed frantic."

"Nothing. Literally nothing," Lori denies, and then gives her excuse, "Just checking if my phone's in my bag. Oh, what you know. My phone is in my bag. Shocker. Silly me. Hehe." But her stomach growls get louder.

"Hmmm I seem to hear commotion in your stomach," Clyde suspects.

"No, Clyde. Don't mind it!" Lori demands.

"A-hah! You, my love, are hungry. My Lori is in despair and suffering from the lack of nutrition that she needs."

"Okay Clyde, you may have literally gone overboard with this."

"No, I must call to the needs of my companion. Who would dare strike hunger to you? I shall seek food for you, my love!" With that, Clyde heads out of the line and skips in search of food to buy along the way.

"Wait, Clyde! Clyde, come back here!" Lori tries to stop him, to no avail. She stubbornly ends waits back at the line. At further view, the 17-year-old teenager would instantly look at this negatively. But fortunately at that moment, the people in front of her start to give second thoughts.

"Okay, this is not working for us," one says.

"Yeah, the waiter said that the large family in there is halfway done, and there is only one table available. And it's for two!" another says.

Lori overhears this and simpers at the fact that her (or their) wait was worth it.

But while she is at it, the people in front, who turned out to belong in one cluster, decide to leave the queue, making Lori the next one to enter Jean-Juan's.

"Next!" the maître d' calls, giving Lori a run for it.

Lori throws the two passes to the headwaiter and runs inside.

But he stops her right away. "Hold it. You handed over two passes. Where's the other recipient?"

"Uhmmm he…just literally went back to the van to get his umbrella. But he'll be arriving soon," Lori states.

However, the maître d' disallows her from entering. "Nope madam, unless your companion is with you, we do not allow for you to access the buffet inside."

"But I swear, Clyde will be here," Lori defends.

"Oh really? If so, why don't you bring him here right away?"

Just because of that, Lori marches out of the queue, as the headwaiter calls for the next couple behind her to occupy the two-seats table. She strides along the sidewalk in search of Clyde. "Clyde! Clyde! Where's that boy?! Clyde!"

She searches for him around the block, to no avail. She then paces beyond the block and heads to a park where many onlookers drop by. And luckily, she spots Clyde jiving with a group of street musicians who are playing impromptu jazz.

"Now this is classic," Clyde utters.

"Clyde!" Lori calls him.

"Oh, hey Lori, sorry I was just enjoying the jazz music of the city." He then hands her a bag of churros. "Churros?"

"We are literally next in line! I was looking for you around the block! Where were you?!"

Realizing that he made their night even worse, Clyde tries to hide that fact but he can only stutter. "I…I…I…?"

Lori gets more agitates, prompting her to drag Clyde away from where he is standing. "That's it, you're going to stick with me in line, and that's final! I'm not going to waste this night of supposed romantic thrills for nothing!"

Lori takes Clyde ahead of the line and attempts to get in. But the maître d' again stops her. "Uhmm miss, you can't get in. You have to line up first."

"What?! But we waited here for hours and hours. I was here a while ago!" she scolds.

"I know. And so are the people. So, I would oblige you to wait back in line now," the headwaiter insists, while he points to the rest of the queue who are annoyed for Lori cutting in front of the line.

Irritated, Lori and Clyde head back to the tail end of the queue and wait for their turn to dine at Jean Juan's. The former is left outraged. But Clyde is troubled on reliving Lori's feelings.

"So…uhhmmm?" he utters.

But Lori stops him. "Not a word, please."

"Okay, but…"

"Not a word Clyde, please."

"Understood. But…?"

"Clyde, I'll only say when you can speak. But not now!"

In respect to her demands, Clyde somberly utters, "Okay…" But he eventually apologizes to her, "I'm sorry Lori. Truly I am. I'm sorry that I made your night even worse. Honestly. I thought I could make for all the disappointments you had tonight. But I guess I just made it worse. Don't worry Lori. After this, I'll never show my face to you ever again."

However, Lori softens up and lets him sincerely voice out his sentiments. She feels nothing but remorse and sympathy over his thoughts. Normally, she would dismiss his oozing words. But after glancing on what brought them to where they are now, Lori feels sorry from what transpired.

But before she could say anything, her phone suddenly rings. " _Hello?_ " she answers. " _Mom, hey…No, I was just with Clyde. Wait mom, the signal..._ " She moves away from the line to get better reception. "Stay here Clyde. I'll be right back."

"Okay," he responds.

As Lori tries to search for a better signal, Clyde sits on the pavement to wait aimlessly. To let the time pass, he thinks of calling Lincoln at this moment. He dials in his number, but he never answers his phone.

"Oh come on buddy, I thought we're brothers 24/7?!" Clyde groans. "Oh well, probably he is busy with homework, or probably researching for tomorrow's quiz."

 _In reality, Lincoln is planning with Lynn and Luan on how to out-prank Lynn's class rival._

"Oh well, I guess it's time for waiting," Clyde utters. But a few moments on, he actively hears a scream from afar. Imperceptible from anyone, Clyde can actually hear sounds from a distance (or specifically Lori's sounds). He tries to correctly perceives the scream and then recognizes it to be "Lori!"


	3. Part 3

Hearing her screams, Clyde tracks Lori down to a couple of blocks. He does not mind breaking out of the line; all he cares is Lori's safety.

Finally, he reaches the lane where he senses her voice. It was not a beautiful for him to see the apple to his eye getting mugged by three felons in black.

"Let go off me! HELP!" Lori screams but a guy behind her tries to cover her mouth.

"No one's gonna help you this time, you pertty lady!" the fat felon utters.

"Chloroform her, you bastards!" the midget felon commands them.

The lean but silent felon grumbles to paralyze Lori to sleep. She tries to budge herself out but ends up being chloroformed.

Even though this was a success for them, the midget felon berates at them, "That took so long, you gnarly wimps!"

"But boss, she was too sassy at us. She's too mean," the fat felon whines.

"Oh, quit your yapping and put her body in the van," the boss with the Napoleon complex replies, "We have more to catch tonight."

"More to catch!" Clyde gasps at the fact that his loved one is just a minority on this mysterious syndicate's modus. Immediately, he dials in 9-1-1 for emergency. Suddenly, Lincoln rings the phone, to which Clyde hysterically tries to silence his phone.

Obviously enough, the three criminals hear the ringing. "Someone's here!" the short-statured felon pants, "Slender man, check it out!"

With that, the lean criminal threateningly trudges to where Clyde is. He even snarls and spits on the ground to show how threatening he is. But as he looks to the lane where the poor 11-year-old kid is hiding, he finds him gone. He then checks the entire perimeter to be sure, just to see empty downtown Royal Woods. The felon then hints through sign language of no sign.

Luckily for Clyde, he quickly retreats to the nearby manhole right in front of him. After that goon walks away, Clyde peeks from there to witness Lori being kidnapped. "Dang. Of all girls, why Lori? How am I going to rescue my love on time?" He then thinks deeply, only to bring up the fact that there is still Vanzilla on their arsenal. With that, he speedily goes to Vanzilla via sewer line. Luckily, the GPS on his phone helps him track down the sewers, somehow.

After that, Clyde finally stumbles upon the parking lot where Vanzilla is. He then picks up a spare key that Lincoln gave to him and opens the back of the van. He then stumbles upon a bicycle that folds like a unicycle, a crash test dummy, a turquoise cocktail dress, a pair of sneakers covered in mud, a helmet, a headband and a makeup kit for the morgue. Upon these conveniently placed materials, Clyde comes up with an idea. "Glad this show had everything conveniently provided for them in time of need," he remarks to the audience.

* * *

With the help of an app that Lisa designed to track down her siblings (the manner of how Lisa was able to give this to Clyde is kind of ambiguous), Clyde races down to catch the criminal and rescue Lori. Noticing that the syndicate is driving towards an intersection from a one-way road, he travels through a nearby alley to gain a perfect advantage. He then follows his scheme by getting off the bicycle he is on and attempts to slide the bicycle with a crash test dummy strapped on it to the van.

Clyde is able to gain momentum on the bike. However, it only hit at the side of the van, instead of the front as he would imagine. "Dang it! Fail!"

Unfortunately for him, two of the felons, the short-statured and the lean one, get down from the van and notice the damage. And somehow, they notice an alarmed Clyde from the alley.

"Well, what do we have here?" the Napoleon-like felon threateningly utters.

Clyde can only stammer from the dilemma he is in.

"You know kid, you let the bike of your hit our van. As you know, your parents told you that it is bad to do that to other people. So, I believe we should punish you."

The two goons then take Clyde's arm and try to take him away. Clyde tries to budge them with flapping his arms, to no avail. "Help! Anyone!"

The lean goon then successfully grasps his body and covers his mouth, while the short-statured felon tries to prick him with a paralyzing syringe.

* * *

Meanwhile, back in the van, Lori gains consciousness. "What the? Where am I?" With the chemical paraphernalia that she sees in the back that includes sedatives, sleeping agents and chloroform, the teen realizes that she has been kidnapped.

Suddenly, she hears a familiar plead for "Help!" "Clyde?" she utters. With that, she uses a nitroglycerin sample from the chemicals and mixed with leftover muriatic acid. She then loads of herself combustive mixtures of the chemicals as armament. "Glad I listened to Lisa's boring lecture about combustion."

After trying to open the door that is on child lock, she then lights up a kitchen flamethrower to melt the lock. She then opens the door and knocks on the window from the fat guy, who is listening from Lori's phone.

Mindlessly, the fat guy lowers his window. "Yes?"

Immediately, Lori smashes him with a bottle of Chloroform, knocking him down.

The other goons hear this commotion. "What in tarnation was that?" the short-statured boss wonders.

Lori then throws nitroglycerin bottles to them like grenades. She fires two more, frightening all of them. The two goons pick up Clyde, only to see a temper-ridden Lori emerge from the cloud of combustion. "You ruined this night for us! Let go of the kid, or you'll taste the worst!"

"Oh yeah, lassy, what you're going to do about that?" the short boss brags.

In retaliation, Lori throws a bottle of acid to the face of the short-statured thug. "My eyes!" the boss squeals.

The last thug then charges Lori by the elbow. But the teen flips above him, and then strikes him from behind with an amber bottle. She then takes over him through covering his mouth with a towel drenched in chloroform.

At that round, it seems all done, until the boss partially recovers his sight and growls to attack at Lori. But instantly, the 17-year-old knocks him down with an uppercut.

Clyde has nothing to add, but to just witness how cool is his crush. "Mamamamama…my…" he stutters, "Never would imagine her like this…"

"Come with me if you want to live," Lori says to Clyde, reaching out her hand. Clyde accepts, and the two make a run for it.

* * *

Later on, the police arrive at the scene, with the van still parked beside the alleyway and the three goons tied up on a lamppost with a cardboard sign that says, " _We kidnapped some kids. And we surrender._ " The cops then recognize them to be top syndicates, who had a rap sheet prior to the duo's kidnapping. The rest of details are best left blank for Lori and Clyde, who spy the scene from a distance. They then escape via the bicycle.

"That's some night. I literally never knew I would do that," Lori remarks.

"You kidding?! You were awesome back there!" Clyde compliments, "The way you knocked that guy's head, you flipped over the other guy and just weaponized chemicals. I mean I saw those stuff in action movies. But you doing those stuff? Man, awesome!"

"Oh, don't mind it. I just learned it from Lisa."

"Yeah…and that was awesome!"

Lori responds to that comment with a smile.

* * *

The duo makes it to Jean Juan's French-Mex Restaurant, as the final couple enters the establishment. But as they rush in, the usher stops them.

"I am sorry. That's last we can accommodate," he says.

"What?! You mean you're full?" the two complain in unison.

"I am sorry, sir and ma'am. That's the last for the night. We apologize. You should have come earlier, like the rest," the usher elaborates.

"So, you're telling me that we waited for the whole night, got kidnapped and escaped for nothing?!" Clyde whines.

"I am sorry, sir. Whatever you are facing, it is not our problem, unless you tampered with something in the restaurant. So beat it."

Then Lori vents to the usher, "You know you can give away your free coupons all you want. But I'm not going to stoop low just for a diet-ruining buffet and a s'mores ice cream cake! Come on Clyde! This ain't worth it." Lori then takes Clyde's arm and brings him back to Vanzilla with the bike.

When they get on the vehicle, Clyde utters, "That was…something there."

Lori then sighs deeply. "The coupons, yeah, they ain't worth. Ughh, such a bummer."

Nervously, Clyde tries to suggest, "Well…maybe we can just go home, or order pizza for the rest of you, and maybe we can watch a movie."

"I'd rather watch the stars," Lori groans, which somehow gives her this idea: "That gives me a thought."

With that, she starts the engine and drives away from downtown and to the mountainous outskirts of Royal Woods. Lori then stops at a drive-in hillside with a view overlooking at the lights of the town. Typically, this would be a romantic spot for dating couples. But this seems nostalgic for the two, especially Clyde, who visited here for the first time.

"Wow, Royal Woods looks…wonderful," he utters.

"Yep. Me and Bobby would go here to relive off our stresses," Lori shares, "I think this might be good for you to." She then climbs on top of the van and brings Clyde up with her.

They gaze at the nighttime scenery. Lights shimmering like the moon reflecting on an ocean. And the faint sound of the bustling city life down below. It is calm on top.

At this pacifying moment, Clyde openly admits, "Lori, I'm sorry…for screwing up…this night. If I'd listen to you, we wouldn't be barred from Jean Juan's."

Lori replies, "You don't need to be. I'm sorry too for being harsh. I guess I am literally expecting a lot for tonight. Then, it all went to nothing. But, at least I have someone to share it with."

Just hearing those words, Clyde feels like arriving in nirvana. It feels like the peak, the apex of his desires from his crush. He brightly smiles as a response.

She smiles back.

But as the two share such an intimate moment, their stomachs start to growl.

"Yeah, but I think we need to literally share this moment with food," Lori considers. "Pizza, it is."

"Good call," Clyde agrees.

* * *

Moments later, the two take a drive-thru on a nearby pizza house and drive home to feast on their dinner.

"Man, what a night," Lori remarks.

"I'll say," Clyde replies, "So, what will you tell your sisters? That you kicked some butt to some bad guys, and actually berated that usher for being rude?"

"Maybe, not much," Lori says, "I'll just say I have a wonderful time with Clyde." As Clyde feels delighted at that remarks, Lori clarifies to him, "But Clyde, I just need to tell this. I know how literally deeply you like me. But we can't be together. But, that doesn't mean we can't be friends. You're still a great date."

"Really?"

Lori then nods her head.

In heart-warming response, Clyde quickly embraces Lori; the latter accepts.

"Well, let's not literally get ourselves too much. Let's eat."

But as Lori opens the door to the Loud house, it comes to a shock for the two that the household is infested with wolf people. But it turns out that Lily's werewolf mutagen spread to the other siblings, making them transform into wolf monsters.

"What's going on here?" Clyde asks.

Suddenly, werewolf Lisa lunges to Lori's face, frightening her. But she pushes her werewolf sister easily back to the house and quickly closes the door as her werewolf siblings notice and target them.

Lori and Clyde push the door from behind.

"I think that werewolf thing that Lily had may have literally turned my siblings into werewolves!" Lori recalls.

"For real?!" Clyde shrieks as their pushes get stronger. "What are we going to do?"

"Looks like you and I are going to have a long night," Lori utters.

 _The End?_


End file.
